In plain words
These human values must be born with man. Human values are there together with man. Between man and the human qualities there is no separation at all. Theirs is an inseparable bond. Today people forget this inseparable humanness and try to live merely as human beings. On the spiritual path there are eight disciplines in its sādhana: yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi.
The very first of these is yama. It is enough to recognise this one alone. All human values are in it. The whole of humanness is contained in it. In what is called yama there are five prāṇas. In it are the five kośas. In it are the five tattvas. In it are the five forms. These five forms, it is said, are the very form of Gāyatrī. They are Ahiṃsā, Satya, asteya, brahmacarya and aparigraha. These five are contained in yama.
Ahiṃsā paramo dharmaḥ
The first is Ahiṃsā. In Buddhism the Buddha taught it above all else. He showed that this is the first Dharma. ‘Ahiṃsā paramo dharmaḥ,’ it was said. What does ‘hiṃsā’ mean? Hurting others, troubling others, tormenting others, giving others pain. Merely to say that you must not hurt others is not enough to call it Ahiṃsā. Ahiṃsā means not only not hurting others; you must also take care not to hurt yourself. One who hurts himself cannot help hurting others. First of all, a person who means to put the Dharma of Ahiṃsā into practice must take care not to harm himself. How is that? He must inquire whether his conduct is on the right path or not. That too is Ahiṃsā! In speech too he must inquire whether this is speech that hurts others or not. He must take care that no wicked look, no look full of evil intent, enters his own seeing.